The Empire-manufactured reality matrix continues to disintegrate. Aware that its grip on power
is rapidly weakening, the quisling regime in Serbia is now trying to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.
Their target is Moscow’s ambassador, Aleksandar Vasilevich Konuzin. Back in September,
Konuzin stood up at a pro-NATO event in Belgrade, hosted by "NGOs" on Empire’s payroll,
thundering, "Are there any Serbs in this room?" This was in response to NATO troops beginning
an operation of seizing the north of the province for the "independent" Albanian regime; an
attempt thwarted by the Kosovo Serbs themselves, despite Belgrade’s constant betrayal.

More recently, Konuzin attended a rally of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), and
praised it for advocating change. This drew harsh criticism from the government and its hangers-on, who charged the Russian with "interference" and "disrespecting Serbia’s sovereignty."

The accusations reek of the worst kind of hypocrisy. First off, none of these people give a rotting
rodent’s posterior about Serbia’s sovereignty. They are all too eager to surrender the occupied
province of Kosovo, and give the Eurocrats everything they demand — and then some. Secondly,
none of them have ever been bothered by interference or disrespect, so long as came from EU or
Imperial ambassadors.

The Astroturf Opposition

Konuzin wasn’t out of line to appear at an opposition gathering. He was, however, mistaken about
the object of his praise. Namely, the Progressives are an Astroturf party, a product of post-electoral engineering on par with the current governing coalition. The alliance of Democrats and
Socialists put together in June 2008 (with the "assistance" of US and UK ambassadors) is a
perversion of democracy, as the two coalitions ran against each other.

US diplomatic dispatches published by WikiLeaks reveal that it was a Democratic operative that
persuaded Tomislav Nikolic, deputy leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), to split off and
form the Progressives. SRS leader Vojislav Seselj has been imprisoned by the Hague Inquisition
since 2003; unable to convict him on spurious "hate speech" charges, it has been keeping him
imprisoned on repeated charges of contempt of court. Adding insult to injury, the Progressives
got to keep the seats in the legislature, to which they were elected as Radicals. So, not only was the
current government never elected as such, neither was the "opposition"!

Misdirections

Now, however, the government in Serbia is in trouble. An election is approaching in April, and
they have nothing to offer. In 2008, the Democrats campaigned on a lie that they would fight for
both European integrations and Kosovo. But the EU is in a major economic and political crisis, so
few are likely to again buy the fantasy of money magically raining from the sky on Serbians loyal
to Tadic. Furthermore, Brussels has clearly spelled out that recognizing the "independent" Kosovo is a prerequisite for further talks — about negotiating the possibilities of probability of maybe
considering whatever may be left of Serbia (when everyone is done with it) joining someday.

The Kosovo policy was exposed as a fraud last year, and more so this fall, as Belgrade tried to
backstab the Serbs standing up for their rights. The economy is a disaster. Mladjan Dinkic, the
international bankster who ran Serbia’s economic policy since October 2000, recently left the
government and reinvented himself as a champion of "regionalism", hoping no one will remember
that the country’s ruin is largely his fault.

Meanwhile, the lunatic "Liberal Democratic" fringe is running on the platform of unconditional
surrender to the Empire, pitching it as the pinnacle of patriotism. They call it "The Reversal" — of
sanity, perhaps, but not of any government policy implemented by Tadic or his DOS predecessors.

The strategy seems to be to saturate the electorate with a plethora of options, all of which are run
by Empire loyalists. Between that and post-electoral trickery, they aim to ensure the survival of
their policies no matter who actually wins the vote.

Then there is a cabal of separatists in the northern province of Vojvodina, seeking to establish a
private satrapy with Empire’s backing – the way Milo Djukanovic did with Montenegro. It doesn’t
matter that the vast majority of inhabitants in the province are ethnic Serbs; a campaign is
already underway to convert them to "Vojvodinians", exactly the same way as the inhabitants of
Montenegro were stripped of their historic Serbian identity. Leaflets that appeared in the
northern city of Novi Sad this week, picturing Serbia kicking to the curb a slovenly, vodka-swilling
Russian, have all the hallmarks of this group.

False Choices

Not surprisingly, the mainstream Western media are covering the issue as a question of choice
between Russia and Europe. One example was a piece this week by WSJ blogger Goran Mijuk,
who argued that, "Serbs will now have to find a compromise between the Russian and European
option… But a solution is possible. As is the case with the Serbian script, which uses both Latin
and Cyrillic, Serbs know how to emulate Western and Eastern standards."

In fact, Cyrillic is the native Serbian alphabet, while the Latin alphabet in use throughout the
Balkans (and claimed by everyone else) is a letter-for-letter adaptation of it. But the real question
is, why emulate at all? Can’t the Serbs just be themselves?

More to the point, the Russians aren’t asking the Serbs to emulate their ways, culture, traditions,
or politics. All Moscow is asking is that the Serbs stand up for their own freedom and look out for
their own interests. How on Earth is that questionable?

On the other hand, the Empire – through the quisling government and "civil society" groups — has
demanded of the Serbs to give up Cyrillic, "reform" their Orthodox Christian church and undergo
a wholesale "identity change" in order to be accepted by the EU and NATO. You know, the NATO
that 12 years ago attacked Serbia and occupied Kosovo, where the EU is now building an Albanian
"independent state"? None of that bothers the "reformers," while Russian support for Serb
independence makes them see red.

It’s the Identity, Stupid

This deliberate conundrum about identity helps explain a peculiarity about last week’s jihadist
attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. Both local and Western media have described the attacker
as "Serbian" – that is, a citizen of Serbia. Yet those very same media vocally insist that the
Muslims living in that region of Serbia are "Bosniaks". So apparently, one can be a "Bosniak"
when special privileges are about to be dispensed, but magically becomes "Serbian" upon
engaging in terrorism.

Early in October, Canadian daily The Globe and Mailpublished a feature on a Quebecois
composer of Serbian origin, who explained that only in Canada did she become aware of her roots
and the richness of her native culture. While she still lived in Serbia, she believed, along with
many others, that traditional identity and culture were something to be despised and ashamed of,
cast aside in favor of some higher, global, cosmopolitan identity.

This was in the 1980s, before the wars that broke up Yugoslavia, or the "democracy" brought by
NATO bombs, boots and bribes. Back then the identity to aspire to was that of the socialist
workers of the world. Today it is of global conspicuous consumers. Either way, it was at the
expense of genuine identity, culture and traditions. Back then, it was the Yugoslav Communists
who demanded this. Today it is the Euro- Atlantic "Democrats". It makes one wonder what
exactly is the difference.

201203753023 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2Fmalic%2F2011%2F11%2F04%2Fidentity-and-other-politics%2FIdentity+And+Other+Politics2011-11-05+06%3A00%3A38Nebojsa+Malichttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2F%3Fp%3D2012037530 to “Identity And Other Politics”

Serbians face a crossroads.
And the signposting is very clear.
Shaking the hand Russia is offering – whilst they have the chance.
Siding with the up and coming. The bastion of oil and gas.
Vladimir Putin.
Or siding with a dying broke, corrupt and violent Empire.
An Empire that has repeatedly betrayed them, murdered them and has bombed them back to the stoneage.
An Empire whose European 'wing' is on the verge of collapse and wants only one thing. The surrender of 15% of Serbia is a pack of islamic organ stealing ex terrorists.
Frankly I wouldn't find it a difficult decision.
I do not think any rational person would find it difficult.
I just hope te Serbs this time have the nous to work out what and who is in their best interest.
It certainly is not the EU or Empire. Thats for sure.

A rotting rodent’s posterior??? People rarely invent expressions in a foreign language. Certainly not as colourful as that! What an extraordinary command of English for someone who claims to be a Bosnian Serb! That, and the fact that the pot is being stirred after only a week, rather than the usual fortnight, suggests panic. The EU is obviously doing all the right things!

Emilyrose, the choice is easy only if you discount the fact that the "west" fine – tuned propaganda to perfection.

The same interchangeability of identities (changing them as interpretation dictates) happens with the Macedonians of albanian descent. When there are crimes committed by them in Europe or US, they are Macedonians, but otherwise they cast themselves as oppressed albanians in Macedonia. Oppressed by representation at every level of government, and oppressed because anything short of Macedonia redefining itself as a confederacy is a pain for them. Which, in concert with the recent announcement that Kosovo and Albania might use the same embassies abroad as a "cost saving" measure, casts a rather gloomy picture at the future of the entire region held hostage by the western backed final resolution of the albanian strategy for the region dreamt up in Prizren long ago.

And, if you want a lesson in what the concept of identity is or how can it be morphed by propaganda, go no further than Macedonia. Macedonians have been under costant blackmail for the last 20 years (officially) to accept the post modern theory of fluid identities…

The American people are as in the dark about Serbia as they are about the legacy of Jesus Christ.100 years of propaganda from criminals has made their minds mush.Hopefully our economic destruction will clear the cobwebs and shock US back to the reality of do unto others as you would have them do to you,instead of malice to all and charity to none.As someone mentioned,other than military equipment to subjugate their people,what have we left to offer Serbia?

Wow! After reading this, I do believe I am back in the Dark Ages, with the Serbs still moaning over their lost battle of Kosovo. As someone from a country that has enjoyed the blandishments of both Russians and the West, I and my countrymen say, give us the West anytime, anywhere. Do you still chop the fingers off those that cross themselves with the wrong number of fingers? Thank the Lord that the West does not have your view of the "legacy" of Jesus Christ.

Apart from the fact that the Battle of Kosovo Polje was not even mentioned in the article, and the fact that you never revealed either what country you were from or what those "blandishments" were, your comment was highly informative to the readers.

Part of their problem is that the West itself (or whatever remains of it) has not given them anything but decadence and secret CIA prisons. So all they are left with is to repeat the same mantra about no alternative for the "European" (whatever they mean by that) choice and Western superiority etc.

Your comments are VERY revealing. The only people who cared about the fingers and crossing were Catholic Ustashas in WWII Croatia. There was a great documentary by A&E on the very topic, as this was the favorite method of finding out from kids whose religion their parents belonged to.
Now, you may be stuck in Dark Ages, but the article was about the current situation. But I give you the credit from KNOWING that Serbs had to fight to protect the very Kosovo from Ottoman Empire in 1389.

Do not you see that the very evils you rightly abhore are ENABLED by the people like you? The history of Balkan Penninsula is one of the most significant in the development of indo-european language, argriculture, mythology and folk lore. Even though we all know that there were no national boundaries in the past, this is not stopping people from pontificating on the national glory (their own, of course). Thus, it is not uncommon that Bulgarians do not wish to see the older understrata of indoeuropean heretage so significant for the modern history, as they are too stuck on the roots of the modern state. And the Greeks do not wish to understand that they came to Balkans, and that there were people there before their arrival; just as Phillip the Macedon was not Greek, as he did not speak Greek. It is too common for Romanians to boast of Roman language that is three fifhts indoeuropean, protoslavic. And in Serbia, it is the history of kings and nobility that entirely forgets that Balkans is a larger place with the Serb populace in many areas that never heard of that royalty. So, with everyone protecting their own patch, the foreigners are defining the history of Balkans, with a sophistication of a hammer that sees everything as a nail.

Jeez, WTF Michael, You sure have a way of pissing people off….. And what exactly is your claim to Balkan insight…??? Time and time again I see you make comments that go off the dial of thumbs down… Me, I was there once…in 71… sold a radio… Got drunk and broke plates….and slept on a lovely carpet of pine needle felt on the forest floor in November… Never noticed the enmity back then…… Funny though, I did talk to Bill Clinton about Bosnia… I regret the advice I offered… him in 199? "Get tough.."

The enemy of the Serbian people are those Jews who lie and are the synagoge of Satan and the Lord God himself will bring the Jew to Belgrade and make them bow down and know! That HE loves his people! The Lord is King of Sumadija and the Holy One of Israel

That's not what the Bible teaches. Read the Old Testament prophets and the Revelation. God will make the unbelieving and self-righteous Jews know that He loves His people, i.e. all those who love Him, both Jews and Gentiles, who are joined together in one faith in Christ. That's not the same thing as the bizarre crap you posted.

Silly you. There were no borders then as you wish them to be. There were Balkan natives, with a garden variety of indoeuropean dialects, and then there were Greeks. Greeks are not the natives of Balkans — this is a historic fact. Greek language became infused with indoeuropean, while it is really not classed trully indoeuropean. This comes from mixing with the Balkan natives, after the fall of Mycenaean civilization. You may not like the idea of Macedonia being Balkan, but it is. You may not like the idea of Alexander the Great's father, Phyllip, not speaking Greek, but he did not. He may have been a Tribal, for all we know, as Phyrr of Epyrus was a Tribal. Or a Iappodi, or Vlah, or Trachian, Dorian, Dachian — pick your choice. Our Balkan dialects are closest to Sanskrit — and thus older specimens of Indoeuropean as we know it. Yet, the petty nationalism — be that Greek, Bulgarian or other, prevents people from realizing that Balkans are ancient grounds, and its languages, folklore, mythology and

Nebojsa Malic left his home in Bosnia after the Dayton Accords and currently resides in the United States. During the Bosnian War he had exposure to diplomatic and media affairs in Sarajevo. As a historian who specializes in international relations and the Balkans, Malic has written numerous essays on the Kosovo War, Bosnia, and Serbian politics. His exclusive column for Antiwar.com debuted in November 2000.